simple Hi-Tek coating

[Hi-Performance Bullet Coatings]

Gents,
I have another large order pending with Joe.
Any colors you guys may want to add to it? Now would be a good time to speak up, I will gladly add to the order if there is enough interest.
I am thinking of adding Kryptonite Green
Currently I have the following powders in stock:
Black
Black 1035
Old Gold
Gold 1035
Brick Red
Candy Apple Red
Red Copper
Bronze 500
Zombie Green
Black Cherry
Gun Metal

[Avenger442]

Thanks Donnie

[Beau Cassidy]

Kryptonite green???? Oh yeah.....

[Echd]

Just got an order of zombie green and old gold in from Hi performance. I have never tried Hitek powder, watched a friend do the liquid a long time ago. Shot a bunch, so I knew they performed!

Follow the directions and it's brain dead. I was impressed with how little downtime I had. I had 6 oven racks (2 racks at a time) which I rotated through and coated about ~1200 in around an hour. The drying period for each tray seemed much shorter than I anticipated- I expected tacky, wet, sloppy bullets getting golden goo all over everything. Instead they didn't even seem to leave marks on the paper I put on the trays, and they were dry and ready to be baked in under 10 minutes, and after they came out, they were ready to be recoated in ~10 minutes.

It was a busy hour though!

I'll make some hardware cloth racks later on. I just used what I had handy and it seemed to work really well.

They seem slightly harder to resize than with powder coat, but not by much at all. I haven't found any that needed to be rejected because of bad coverage, unlike with PC. The cost I suppose is the downside, but it's still absolutely dirt cheap to the point where it's not worth sweating it.

I do need some better glassware, though. I used a big polypropylene mixing bowl to toss my bullets in and a Nestle green tea bottle to mix my hitek in. Pretty ghetto! I think I used about ~15 grams of powder to get this mix, and used a slight bit more acetone than recommended (erring on the side of caution, as the well-thought-out instructions seemed to hint was good to do). The coverage speaks for itself, so I'd say it's alright. This is 2 coats and that seems to be plenty.

[slide]

Good looking coating job!

[DerekP Houston]

Kryptonite green???? Oh yeah.....

I'd be interested to give that a shot zombie green still gives me fits some times.

[HI-TEK]

I'd be interested to give that a shot zombie green still gives me fits some times.

In down-under-land, that Zombie Green is very much liked. Kryptonite Green is more liked and is Susanne Islands Bullet Co. colour.
Attached is colour comparisons. dark green
Original Kryptonite was only available as liquid, now we are close enough with a powdered version.
Also the picture of the Blue 818 as powdered system.

[Ausglock]

Its Susan Island Bullets.... And stop giving My Kryptonite Green to the Northern Hemisphere Dwellers......

[HI-TEK]

Its Susan Island Bullets.... And stop giving My Kryptonite Green to the Northern Hemisphere Dwellers......

Susanne was more friendly sounding name...lol..lol
The demand is there, they want it bad......lol

[psychbiker]

What's the size of your toaster oven if that's what you're using? I need to get or make another rack so I can bake two trays at a time. I also need to make a larger mesh screen cooling try to spread them out for drying after coats and baking.

[popper]

Coated ~500 cast 40 TC yesterday with liquid green today - but they came out brown! 2 coats. Passed smash & wipe fine, sizer removed coating. They feel kind of sticky. Mix is from last fall - added some acetone. Came out same color as gold 1035 ((both turn brown) so I assume that the color part doesn't 're-combine' well? Humidity reminds me of Panama but I did dry with fan and in PID conv. oven for 1 hr @ 180F for 1 hour. Probably done a couple thou. in the past with no problem.

[DerekP Houston]

Coated ~500 cast 40 TC yesterday with liquid green today - but they came out brown! 2 coats. Passed smash & wipe fine, sizer removed coating. They feel kind of sticky. Mix is from last fall - added some acetone. Came out same color as gold 1035 ((both turn brown) so I assume that the color part doesn't 're-combine' well? Humidity reminds me of Panama but I did dry with fan and in PID conv. oven for 1 hr @ 180F for 1 hour. Probably done a couple thou. in the past with no problem.

That has been my experience as well. I believe I am over cooking it a tad, I get a nice green color for the first 2 coats, then it turns a tad gold No complaints cause it works just fine even with the color a bit off. I switched to running my oven off a PID set to 400f as well. Gold, bronze, and black have been very reliable but I broke the jar the green came in so i'm trying to use it up first .

[Rompin Ruger]

Sticky? Sticky! Mine, when done, are slippery...I keep dropping them trying to put neatly in bullet boxes..

Something sounds off to be "sticky"... where's Hi-tec or Trevor when you need them? I've only ever used the Red Copper!

[DerekP Houston]

Mine aren't sticky at all, nice and slick to the touch. Just the pigment gets burned a tad by me forgetting the timer.

[Ausglock]

Never had Sticky.
Even when air dried prior to baking, they are not sticky.
I have used some red copper that was mixed back in Sept 2015 and sitting under my bench. It had settled out and needed a good shaking with a rattle bullet inside, Coated and baked fine. It had sat through Summer temps and still worked.

No Idea on Sticky.... Sorry.

[Echd]

So will mixed powder "keep"? Just add some acetone and go, I assume?

[popper]

Sticky as 80% humidity and 72F. Brought one inside with AC and it's dry like normal. 2nd coat had more tinge of green before baking, brown after. Same setup I've used for a couple years. Actually I added mix to the old last year and was OK colorwise, this time it goes brown. I'll probably just size and apply BLL when it gets dry here. I need to cast another batch and I will clean the bottle and use new mix. Basically wondering if the 'color' part of the stuff doesn't re-mix well. I did shake the heck out of it.

[Ausglock]

So will mixed powder "keep"? Just add some acetone and go, I assume?

If you have not had the container sealed correctly and need to add more Acetone, I'd suggest you throw it out and mix a new lot.
It will keep fine if the container is air tight. The colour will be darker as the coating does darken with age. But will still coat and shoot fine from my experience.

[bilco]

So from what I'm gathering a super light coating is the secret to passing the smash test with no flaking?

[HI-TEK]

So from what I'm gathering a super light coating is the secret to passing the smash test with no flaking?

You are partly correct. Thin coats initially is more crucial with first coat applications. These dry quickly, and have maximum adhesion when baked. First coat, must pass smash test and solvent tests first, before applying subsequent coats.
Subsequent coats can be applied thicker, as these will bond to first coat.
As long as first coat is baked adequately, and has bonded, all should be OK afterwards.